"witch" and "warlock"

[Christopher Gwinn]

> I'll leave lurk-mode for a moment to ask if anyone can direct me to
> *current* resources discussing the history and evolution of these two
> terms (a summary would be nice, too, if someone would be kind enough
> to take the time).
>

Calvert Watkins in "The American Heritage Dictionary of Indo European Roots"
has Witch derive from the root *weg- (2) "to be strong/to be lively" (which
also is the root of English "to wake").

Witch, from Old English masculine Wicca (Feminine Wicce), ultimately comes
from a suffixed PIE form, *weg-yo and likely may represent a Proto Germanic
*wikkjaz meaning "necromancer" or (more literally) "one who wakes the dead."

Warlock (Old English Waeloga), on the other hand, comes from a compound of
two PIE roots, *werH-o "true/trustworthy" and *leugh-  "to tell a lie."
Warlock literally means "pledge/oath breaker" (the Old English word waeloga
meant "oath breaker/damned soul/wicked person" and was often assigned as an
epithet of Satan).

-Christopher Gwinn